


October 23rd

by AlNiCa



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Happy Birthday Keith (Voltron), Includes a Good Ol Smooch, a little sad but then ends happy, author is going to upload and then immediately take 50 mg of melatonin and knock the f out, birthday fic, she's just really dumb ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 07:34:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlNiCa/pseuds/AlNiCa
Summary: Keith had a complicated relationship with birthdays growing up. That's starting to change.





	October 23rd

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday to Keith! In canon I feel like he's almost my (biological) age, so I just made him my age. He deserves so much happiness.

Keith had been told “happy birthday” by approximately 4 people in his life. He didn’t particularly like or care for birthdays but appreciated them when people chose to spend his with him.

The first being his father, who he had to celebrate his birthday with him for the first 9 years of his life.

Every year his dad would take him on a road trip to Utah several hours away to go fishing at a lake near where his grandparents were from. There weren’t a lot of bodies of water near where they lived in the desert, so it was a treat for both of them.

It was there that his dad had taught him to fish, to swim, and to cook with the bare minimum of tools and some fire. Keith had only cut his hand a couple of times while he was young, trying hard to mimic everything his dad was showing him. They ended up eating the fish and some potatoes they brought for dinner, and then his dad would give him the small red velvet cupcake he secretly packed for him.

He was the reason Keith had grown to love being outside. Instead of a tent they would bring sleeping bags and some pillows and sleep under the stars. His dad somehow knew all of them and would point out their names. Keith began to memorize which were which by the time he turned 7.

Some of them his dad would use weird names for in a language he didn’t know. He wouldn’t tell him where he heard them before, but he always had a dreamy smile on his face when he started saying them.

Keith’s favorite star ended up being the North Star. His dad said it was a good one to be his favorite since it was a star you could always find. It made Keith feel safe, always knowing where it was in the sky, watching his small 9 year old self wandering in the woods looking for firewood alone.

He only got lost once, but that was because a bunny happened to walk by and he wanted to pet it. He ended up following the bunny for ten minutes, but it was enough for him to forget which direction he’d come from. His dad said you can use stars to help you find your way through the dark, but he just sat down where he was and stared up at the sky. His dad eventually found him and laughed when he heard what happened. He said maybe when Keith asked if he could get a pet bunny.

His dad died March the next year. He still misses camping.

 

The second, being a kid he met in the foster system. His name is Andy and he met him a couple of months before his 12th birthday. Andy was originally from Montana but was living with his aunt when his mom passed away. He was put in the system when his aunt decided he was too much to handle with her own children.

They were in the same class at school so they would walk to and from every day together. They did their homework together every night and eventually, they both tried out for the same basketball team. They both didn’t make it since they were so short and uncoordinated, so they ended up taking free mixed martial arts classes together down at the YMCA.

Andy’s favorite color was green, his favorite fruit was pineapple, and he refused to walk around barefoot when they were home. They asked to share a room and for a long time, they were almost inseparable.

Andy, for the first time in years, was someone Keith had considered family. He grew up an only child and had always wanted a brother.

One day when they were climbing a tree at a poorly maintained park down the street he asked Andy if they could be actual brothers.

“Of course! Now we don’t even need parents, we have each other!”

Everything was going great between them. Keith even started feeling healthier since Andy made sure he ate more than enough at each meal and showered every night before bed.

When his birthday came, he didn’t expect anything because he didn’t know what brothers did for each other on birthdays.

When he got back to his room that night from his shower, Andy had set up a blanket fort in between their twin beds and had dragged all of their pillows and mattresses inside.

“Come on in!” He heard from under the fort, so Keith crawled in to find Andy surrounded by their favorite comics, a bunch of popcorn from the pantry, and a small wrapped box with a purple bow on top.

“What’s all this?”

“It’s your birthday, dumb dumb. We’re celebrating! You’re officially 12!”

“12 isn’t that special.”

“Of course it is, every birthday is special. Now here, open this!”

Andy shoved the small package onto Keith’s lap. He carefully unwrapped it and opened the box.

Inside was a small Superman action figure. He had always liked Superman because he reminded him of his dad. He had told Andy that one night when they snuck out to go watch a meteor shower.

He immediately crushed Andy into a hug and thanked him. He hadn’t felt so cared about in years. He hadn’t felt like he had a family in so long.

When Andy was adopted 2 months later, his new parents didn’t care that he had a brother being left behind.

 

The third was Shiro. Shiro came to be in Keith’s life right before his 16th birthday. He was ridiculously small for his age, mostly due to malnourishment, hated being in school, and would constantly get in fights because someone else decided he was a good target to beat up.

After stealing Shiro’s car and having to get bailed out of Juvie, Shiro then gave him a second chance at the Garrison. He even helped him sign the paperwork to start classes that next semester.

Shiro was the oddest person he’d ever met, if he was being quite honest.

Their relationship was weird in the beginning. When Keith was moving in Shiro was there to welcome him and help him get situated. When Keith was walking to class Shiro was there waving to him like an idiot and pushing through crowds to ask him how his day was going. When Keith got into a fight Shiro was there to help de-escalate the situation and get Keith out of trouble.

He was like an older brother that he didn’t want.

It had become apparent that Keith was stuck with Shiro, not that it was a bad thing, but he needed to be honest about how he was feeling or he’d come to resent him. He wasn’t used to the support, and after being independent for so long, he knew he didn’t want a father figure in his life...or whatever Shiro was trying to do.

He cornered Shiro one day after dinner during free time. They were going to hang out in the sims in a bit, but it was now or never since Keith had been working himself up to this for weeks.

“Shiro, I need to talk to you.”

He looked mildly confused and amused, “Sure, can we talk on our way to the aviation building?”

“Uhm, no.”

“No?" He looked moderately confused now, "Keith, are you okay?” Shiro asked as he put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, a concerned look in his eyes.

Keith shrugged him off, “This is exactly what I need to talk to you about. I.. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, I do. I don’t want this to sound like I don’t realize how much you’ve done and I don’t know how to phrase this to not sound bad but I.. I don’t need a father, I don’t need an older brother, I don’t need someone acting like they’re responsible for me. I’ve taken care of myself enough since my dad died, I don’t need to be babied. I just need a friend, okay?”

Shiro took a minute to take that in while looking at the ground. After taking too long to respond, Keith got the hint that he fucked their relationship up completely, so he started to walk away. But before he could leave, a hand caught his wrist, pulling him back.

“I get it. I’m sorry. I never meant to act like that, I guess I just wanted to make sure you got everything you needed. I’m usually the ‘mom friend’ most the time, so I didn’t really think about it.”

“Even if you jump off cliffs on your bike.”

He laughed, “Yeah, mom friend in other ways. But I get it. I was the same way. But I saw you were alone like I was and wanted to step in. I didn’t realize I was still acting like you were a kid I needed to help and not my friend.”

“Even though Adam said our friendship was ‘weird’.”

“Keith, what normal 22 year old is best friends with a 15 year old?”

Keith scoffed, “One that has good tastes.”

Shiro let out a loud belly laugh, “Yeah, THAT'S why. Now come on, sim time is a wastin'.”

4 weeks later, Keith walked into Shiro’s apartment after getting his S.O.S. text. He couldn’t think of why he’d have an emergency. But everything from not handing in his Kerberos mission plan on time to Adam breaking up with him popped into his head.

“Ah yes, my small child. Come in, come in!” Was his greeting when he entered the door. He rolled his eyes, Shiro knew very well how much he hated that nickname.

“What’s up, you sent me a cryptic emergency text?”

“Oh, no emergency. Just needed you to get here ASAP.”

“Why didn’t you just say that?! I just sprinted here you big idiot!”

“Hey, that’s not polite, seeing as I’m the big idiot who baked you a birthday cake.”

Keith’s brain rebooted when he heard that. He scanned the room, finally taking in his surroundings. There were some balloons tied to his kitchen chair, a small pizza and a cake was sitting on the counter next to his favorite blueberry soda, a small gift was on the coffee table in the living room, and Shiro had on a party hat. How did he miss THAT?

“..oh.”

“Oh? Do you.. is it not your birthday?”

“Is it the 23rd?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, it’s my birthday. I guess I forgot..”

“How do you forget your birthday?”

“Well, I haven’t celebrated it more than once since my 9th.”

“Keith you’re.. 16.”

“Yeah, I uh.. I know.”

He could tell that was a future conversation being stored away, but for now..

“You did all this, for me?”

Shiro’s smile started to return, “Of course I did. You only turn 16 once! I remember you mentioned you like red velvet, so I tried to make you a cake. I also ordered us a pizza, rented some trashy B rated horror movies, and got your RA not to say anything if you end up not spending the night in your dorm. Adam’s in Virginia for a conference, so we can act ridiculous all night without him telling us to shush, like normal. How does that.. Keith? Are you, are you crying?”

Keith hadn’t realized until that moment that he’d had tears running down his face. He usually doesn’t cry, but the care that Shiro put into Keith’s birthday was ridiculously unexpected and he was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Shiro was quickly taking off the silly “kiss the cook” apron he was wearing to come over and comfort Keith.

“I’m sorry, is this not okay? We can just ignore all of this and go study in the library if you really want to.”

“No no, this is.. this is so nice, Shiro. I just, I wasn’t expecting this. Thank you.”

Shiro gathered him in his arms for a warm and comforting hug.

That night, Shiro gave Keith gloves for riding and sparring and they watched 2 movies before Shiro fell asleep snoring on the couch.

A year and a half later, he was declared dead by the Garrison due to “pilot error” on his mission to Kerberos.

 

The fourth, and least expected, was his mom.

They’d just finished eating breakfast and had made plans on what part of the whale they were going to explore that day when he heard it. He thought he’d imagined it, but when he looked up he saw her face and knew what he heard was real.

“Happy Birthday, Keith.”

He couldn’t stop the instant trembling in his hands. He’s never gotten emotional about birthdays (except that time with Shiro). He didn’t care about birthdays. But that might be because no one else cared about his birthdays.

In his time in the castle, he refused to bring up his birthday. Especially since what they assumed was October happened right after Shiro had disappeared again. Keith was in no celebratory mood, especially since the only thing he wanted he couldn’t find.

It’d been so long since he had a parent on one of his birthdays. The last one he spent with someone was Shiro. He’d taken him riding in the desert and bought him a fun fetti cupcake from the fancy bake shop.

To this day, he can count on both hands how many times someone has remembered his birthday.

“How do you know?”

“When I left, I programmed a special Earth calendar into my personal database. It had two functions, to tell me how long it’s been since I left, and to tell me whenever it was October 23rd on Earth.”

Keith didn’t realize he was crying until Krolia..no, his mom..reached up to wipe away the fallen tears from his face. He hasn’t cried in so long.

“Today, you should be 20 in Earth years.”

Her smile was so bright when she said it like she was so proud of how old he was. He guesses every birthday is a gift when you’re a member of the Blade.

“Tell me, does anything special happen on Earth on your 20th birthday? Your dad mentioned people can drive when they reach 16 and can fight when they reach 18.”

It took him a second to collect himself so he wouldn’t continue to cry as he spoke. He was always an ugly crier, his dad used to point it out to make him laugh.

“Nothing really, when you’re 21 in the US, where dad and I lived, you could legally drink. But I’ve been drinking for years.”

“Drink? But you already drink to live?”

“Oh, like alcohol. Uhm, I can’t remember any Galra stuff but if you’ve heard of nunvil? Like that. You can’t drink it legally until 21.”

“Huh, that makes no sense. You’re a growing boy, you should learn how to drink from an earlier age.”

“Well, I definitely had plenty of time to do that when I was living alone.”

“In the desert?”

“Yeah..”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, content to watch the wolf zap around their chosen campsite. They needed to start their day, collect some food, scout out more water sources, but neither was ready to break this moment yet.

She ended up throwing her arm around his shoulders. She learned very early on that he was receptive to hugs, and craved comfort from anyone that would give it to him. He told her that for a long time that’d only been Shiro in the form of his shoulder grasps and rare hugs.

She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his temple. He closed his eyes to fully appreciate the experience of having a parent show him affection.

“Happy birthday, Keith. I love you so much. Your father would be so proud of you.”

He gave in and fully collapsed onto her. Tears started falling down his cheeks full force now. He’s been waiting for so long to hear something like that.

“I love you too, mom.”

He got to spend his 21st with her as well.

 

There now was a fifth.

Walking through the Garrison is weirder after everything they’ve been through. He’s no longer looked down upon as the problem cadet that hasn’t been expelled yet because of his wicked flying scores and Shiro constantly being overprotective. Now, he’s the leader of one of Earth’s saviors. There’s no one on the planet that could say anything bad about him, especially not anyone here.

But he didn’t really care about that now, especially since he was on the hunt for one very tall, white-haired man that was supposed to meet him for lunch and then never showed.

They always had one meal together every day, no matter what (as long as they were on the same planet). If something had happened, he should’ve at least called.

Come to think of it, Keith hasn’t seen any of his team, the MFEs, his mom, OR Shiro today.

How strange.

He’d just finish checking Shiro’s office when he got a message to head down to the Lion hangar.

Again, strange.

He was trying to think back to figure out what was going on. As someone with a track record of not being good with friendships in general, he was a bit anxious that everyone was ignoring him for some reason. Was he rude to someone by accident? Was he an ass during training the other day?

He wasn’t sure, but he was probably about to find out.

He rounded the corner and opened the door to the hangar. Oddly enough, the lights were off. He could see Black’s eyes light up to greet him, but he couldn’t make out anything else.

Before he could turn on the lights though, the entire room was illuminated and Keith saw all of his friends, Shiro, his mom, some of his friends from the Blades, the MFE crew, some Atlas crew he befriended recently, and his wolf all surrounding a table with a large, red cake on it.

“SURPRISE!!”

He was.. speechless. He had forgotten his birthday, again, something Lance would say is “very on brand” for him. He knew he should say something by now, but looking over everyone’s happy face made him feel like he was going to puke, if you could puke from happiness.

Shiro was the first to approach him, of course. He gave him a big hug and whispered his own personal happy birthday to Keith. He reluctantly let go to make his rounds in hugging and thanking everyone else for the lovely surprise.

They all had some cake, Coran had specially created a musical number to perform for him, and he had never felt so loved in his entire life.

Slowly everyone started to trickle out after a couple of hours until it was just him and Shiro. They made eye contact and Shiro nodded his head towards Black, Keith smiled understanding the meaning.

Keith leaned against the center consul as Shiro entered the cockpit.

“Hm, I haven’t been in here in a while.”

“You’ve spent more time in here than anyone else combined. I think it’s fine if you’re taking a break from her for a bit.”

“That’s true, Atlas has really been enjoying the attention. She’s a lot different than Black, I have to teach her everything.”

“Well, you’re a good teacher so I know it won’t be too hard.”

Shiro smiled at that and moved around the pilot seat. Keith assumed he was moving to sit down but he ended up boxing Keith in. They briefly talked about their feelings for one another when they were drunk a couple of weeks ago, but he’d been too nervous to bring it up since then. It seems Shiro has lost his patience to wait for Keith to make a move.

“I almost forgot to give you your present.”

Keith’s entire face felt warm, “Oh? And what’s my present?”

Shiro gave him the most wicked smirk he’s seen on the man in YEARS. Then he leaned in and stole his breathe away with the most amazing kiss he ever had and probably ever will experience. As his lips softly, but intently moved over his, Shiro’s hands came to rest at his hips. He took his chance to drag his hands up Shiro’s arms to grab a hold of his biceps as their kiss continued.

The best gift he'd ever been given.

After what seemed like an eternity and also the blink of an eye, Shiro pulled back to look at Keith. It’d been a while since Keith’s felt this kind of peace. Like everything in his soul felt right.

That’s when Shiro said, “Happy 23rd Birthday, Keith.”

Keith guesses he was starting to like birthdays.

**Author's Note:**

> It's 1 am my time (EST) and I stayed up just so I can upload this on his actual birthday. It probably would've been uploaded tomorrow because of work if I didn't do it now - sorry for the typos if they exist. It's also becoming my brand to upload things half asleep (basically the last three uploads). 
> 
> I can't wait to write something dumb for Shiro's birthday.
> 
> Love y'all.
> 
> Come say hi!  
> Twitter: nax_zela  
> Tumblr: nax-zela  
> Pillowfort: naxzela


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